There are now more ebay sellers in the USA offering free shipping on these cheap stuff since they buy them from manufacturers and ship huge quantity cheap and then sell them in the USA. On the other hand, we micro-businesses can't get any discounts. Any solution?

wizdum

There are now more ebay sellers in the USA offering free shipping on these cheap stuff since they buy them from manufacturers and ship huge quantity cheap and then sell them in the USA. On the other hand, we micro-businesses can't get any discounts. Any solution?

I wonder if they would accept some kind of bulk order similar to how OSHPark does their circuitboard orders. We all use the same account to get shipping quotes.

rvasque

Tell that to their pensioners, and healthcare provider. It's their healthcare and pension costs that is out of control and that's why USPS is in the deep hellhole it is right now.

And their only solution to their out-of-control costs problem is to try increasing revenue by raising rates for all of us.

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Now, as to competing with HK and Chinese sellers.... you can't. Forget about it. You'll always lose. They can get their parts, labor costs and shipping costs cheap cheap cheap!!!... even if you buy your parts in bulk. The only way you can compete is by designing and producing innovative products that they CANNOT copy... well, at least legally.... i.e. don't give them permission to copy it.

In other words, OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE is a big freaking welcome gate and permission slip for Chinese and HK business to copy copy copy everything, produce it, and sell it far cheaper than you can ever imagine/produce by yourself here in the US.

So here you are, designing hardware and writing software and releasing it as open source hardware, and they'll be the ones benefiting and reaping the rewards... not you. They'll be the ones making the sale, not you.... and you can't do anything about it since well, you said it was open source.

Tell that to their pensioners, and healthcare provider. It's their healthcare and pension costs that is out of control and that's why USPS is in the deep hellhole it is right now.

And their only solution to their out-of-control costs problem is to try increasing revenue by raising rates for all of us.

There has already been one post in this thread explaining how USPS has to pay 2x more into those funds than other federal agencies because they've been marked for extinction.

But the real big evidence that they are not leeches on society is the comparison between USPS and private agencies that charge much much more.

We have out-of-control costs because resources have getting shorter for over 40 years and a small segment of the population takes an ever-increasing amount to themselves. The numbers you see are a direct result of that and the inflation used to keep it going. Instead of everyone slowing down a little, a few have rocketed up higher than ever in history while the majority have lost out more every year, and still you get guys whose idea of economy fits that of the US in 1770 or Old Testament times.

The US budget info has been published since 1910. The numbers are there. Every time we have a war the debt has jacked up significantly. Every time the War-Borrowing Spree has ended it's only a while before the poor get blamed for higher prices and then we have -another- war. Look at the data, look at the years, look at the price indexes and if you can still say war is good for the economy or that war has not been the major driver of national debt then you shouldn't do math beyond checking your change at the counter.